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AQA A-level psychology HUMANISTIC APPROACH NOTES
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Social Influence (PSY71812)
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Social Influence
Conformity
What is When a person changes their opinions or behaviour due to pressure that is real or
Conformity? imagined from another person or group (Aronson, 2011)
Influenced by other’s opinions and behaviours which can cause a change in your own
behaviour or opinion.
E.g. drinking alcohol if your group of friends are or changing your answer to a question
because others are giving a different answer to you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRH_DhiKaeQ (1m38-end)
Types of According to Kelman (1958) there are three types of conformity to the majority:
Conformity - Internalisation
o What? – strongest type of conformity, where the individual takes the
majority view as a result of accepting it as correct.
o Causes a permanent change in behaviour as attitudes are internalised into
the individual’s way of thinking.
o Both a private and public change in behaviour.
- Identification
o What? – moderate conformity, where the individual conforms because
they want to fit into the group and value the group – wanting to be part of
it.
o Public change in behaviour and opinion but not always carried into private
behaviour and opinion.
- Compliance
o What? – superficial conformity that only lasts while the group is present –
the individual publicly/outwardly goes along with the group.
o A public change but never a private change as the individual disagrees with
the group
Explanations of Two-process theory (Deutsch & Gerard, 1955) suggests that there are two explanations as
Conformity to why people conform.
- Based on two human needs – need to be right (ISI) and need to be liked (NSI).
- Informational Social Influence (ISI)
o What? – cognitive explanation of conformity that suggests people conform
to be correct, often believing that the opinion of the majority is correct.
o Accept as the individual believes they will be correct for taking the same
opinion.
o Mostly when situations are ambiguous and the individual is unclear on
what is correct, in crisis situations requiring quick decisions and when
someone in the majority is considered an expert.
o Can often lead to internalisation.
o E.g. when the class mostly agrees on one answer, you accept it because
you feel it is likely to be right.
- Normative Social Influence (NSI)
o What? – emotional explanation that people conform to be accepted by the
group, gaining social approval and to be liked by the majority.
o Can occur around strangers but also people you know and are concerned
about continuous social approval from friends.
o Can lead to compliance.
o E.g. Mean Girls scene in which she is shunned from the group for wearing
sweatpants
, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8_POt2KlfQ
Research Support for ISI:
support for ISI - Supporting evidence for people conforming in situations where they do not know
and NSI the answer – looking to others for the answer.
- Lucas et al., (2006) – group of students provided mathematical problems varying in
difficulty and asked to give their answers. They found higher levels of conformity
to incorrect answers (when the rest of the group gave the wrong answer) if the
questions were hard rather than easy, particularly for students who reported
being bad at maths.
Support for NSI:
- Evidence suggesting people do not want to seem foolish in from of others or be
rejected by the group for being different.
- Asch (1951) – in his seminal study, many of the participants reported conforming
to the answers, even if they knew it was wrong, because they felt self-conscious
giving the right answer as they feared disapproval from the group.
o Replication of the study where participants wrote down their answers
instead of saying them in front of the group = 12.5% conformity
(significant drop when no pressure)
Problems with Individual differences in ISI:
ISI and NSI - Not every feels the need to conform as a result of ISI
- Asch (1955) – students conform around 10% less than other samples in his
paradigm.
- Perrin and Spencer (1980) – little conformity from science and engineering
students compared to other samples.
- This is a limitation because it considers that we all look to others for the
information, but ISI is not a valid explanation for everyone as not all feel they need
to conform to right or wrong answers.
Individual differences in NSI:
- NSI does not affect everyone’s behaviour – some individuals are not as concerned
with being liked and therefore will not conform to fit in with groups.
- People with a need for affiliation (nAffiliators) = greater need for being in a
relationship with others and hold group memberships.
o These individuals have been shown to conform more (McGhee & Teevan,
1967).
- NSI is not a valid explanation for everyone because not everyone feels the need to
be liked by others.
NSI and ISI interact, they are not separate:
- The two-process theory suggests you conform because of ISI or NSI, ignoring that
you may be conforming as a result of both influences.
o Turner (1991) – two-process theory is therefore simplistic and incomplete
because it cannot explain every instance of conformity.
- Asch (1951) – adding a dissenting participant (going against the majority) reduces
conformity. This can both reduce ISI because there is a second source of
information to look to and reduce NSI due to social support (someone else going
against the majority).
- NSI and ISI work together in both lab and real-life situations of conformity but are
rarely explained together.
EXAM 2 marks:
, QUESTIONS: Explain what psychologists mean by the term internalisation.
types and Explain what psychologists mean by the term identification.
explanations Explain what psychologists mean by the term compliance.
Internalisation, identification and compliance are all types of conformity. Outline one
difference between any two of these.
Explain what is meant by the term informational social influence in relation to conformity.
Explain what is meant by the term normative social influence in relation to conformity.
4 marks:
Outline normative social influence as an explanation for conformity.
Outline informational social influence as an explanation for conformity.
16 marks:
Describe and evaluate informational social influence and normative social influence as
explanations for conformity. Refer to evidence in your answer.
Outline and evaluate two explanations for conformity.
Asch’s research Asch (1951) – a classic psychological study into conformity and the variables affecting
into conformity conformity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqIdm2gssBo
Participants:
- 123 American male undergraduates split into naïve participants (unaware of the
aim of the study, N=50) and confederates (those who were told to give wrong
answers on certain trials).
Procedure:
- Participants were shown a series of two white cards at a time – on one card was a
single line and on the other were three reference lines labelled ABC. Participants
were asked to say which of the reference lines matched the length of the one on
the other card (two of the reference lines were significantly wrong – very clear to
see this).
- Participants gave their answers out loud, one at a time, naïve participant was
always the 6th to give their answer.
- Completed 18 trials of this task, 12 of which where the confederates gave
incorrect answers
Findings:
- Naïve participant conformed with the wrong answer 36.8% of the time.
- 25% never conformed, 75% conformed at least once.
- Showed that they conformed even when the answer was obvious.
- Follow-up interview after the trials suggested that participants were conforming to
avoid rejection (supporting NSI)
Variations:
- Asch went on to investigate what conditions could increase or decrease this
conformity using variations of his original procedure.
- Group size:
o Changed the number of confederates in the room to determine the
strength of conformity when the numbers changed.
o Three confederates caused a conformity level of 31.8% but adding more
confederates resulted in a plateau (no increase) but less than three had no
effect.
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